Pau Football Club (, Bearnese ), known simply as Pau, is a French professional

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

club based in Pau, Pyrénées-Atlantiques, capital of Béarn. They compete in Ligue 2, the second tier of French football. Pau FC were founded in 1920 as Bleuets de Notre-Dame de Pau, although their official founding date is in 1959, when Football Club de Pau were first formed. Bleuets de Notre-Dame joined the highest amateur league in France in 1958 after success in the French South-West League (Ligue du Sud-Ouest). However, the religious authorities argued that the football section had outgrown the rest of the club and financial support was withdrawn. As a consequence, José Bidegain, a local businessman, created the Football Club de Pau. In the early years after the club's formation in its original home of Pau, they played their home matches at many different grounds until finally settling at the

Nouste Camp The Nouste Camp ( is a football stadium and a sports complex located in the Pau suburb of Bizanos in France. The home of Pau FC, it is the smallest stadium in the 2021–22 Ligue 2, with an all-seated capacity of 4,031. Opened as ''Nouveau Sta ...

. The club's achievements include winning the

Championnat National The Championnat de France National ( en, French National Championship), commonly referred to as simply National or Division 3, serves as the third division of the French football league system behind Ligue 1 and Ligue 2. Contested by 18 clubs, ...

in 2020, winning the National 2 title twice in 1998 and 2016 and winning the French South-West League in 1958 and 1968. Pau FC have long-standing rivalries with several other clubs in Southern France in the

Adour The Adour (; eu, Aturri; oc, Ador) is a river in southwestern France. It rises in High-Bigorre (Pyrenees), in the commune of Aspin-Aure, and flows into the Atlantic Ocean ( Bay of Biscay) near Bayonne. It is long, of which the uppermost ca. ...

river basin. The most notable of these are

Bayonne Bayonne (; eu, Baiona ; oc, label= Gascon, Baiona ; es, Bayona) is a city in Southwestern France near the Spanish border. It is a commune and one of two subprefectures in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department, in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine r ...

, Mont-de-Marsan and

Tarbes Tarbes (; Gascon: ''Tarba'') is a commune in the Hautes-Pyrénées department in the Occitanie region of southwestern France. It is the capital of Bigorre and of the Hautes-Pyrénées. It has been a commune since 1790. It was known as ''Turba'' ...

. With the rise of Pau FC and the decline of

, Mont-de-Marsan and

, Pau recently became a strong rival to

Bordeaux Bordeaux ( , ; Gascon oc, Bordèu ; eu, Bordele; it, Bordò; es, Burdeos) is a port city on the river Garonne in the Gironde department, Southwestern France. It is the capital of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, as well as the prefectu ...

and both form the New Aquitaine derby.

History

Football in Pau and South-West France

Since the Belle Époque, football had to play second fiddle to

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

and especially

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In it ...

in Pau. Nowadays, the popularity of both Pau's rugby union and basketball clubs –

Section Paloise Section Paloise (, Bearnese: ), commonly referred to as ''Section'' or as ''Pau'' , is a professional rugby union club based in Pau, France. They compete in the Top 14, France's top division of rugby, and the EPCR Challenge Cup. Their home ...

and Élan Béarnais, respectively – remains greater than that of Pau FC. Historically and culturally, rugby was probably closer to the values of the place (

Gascony Gascony (; french: Gascogne ; oc, Gasconha ; eu, Gaskoinia) was a province of the southwestern Kingdom of France that succeeded the Duchy of Gascony (602–1453). From the 17th century until the French Revolution (1789–1799), it was part ...

), replacing the Béarnese and Basque rural sports in the hearts of the people of Béarn and Gascony.

Recent history

On 16 January 2020, Pau eliminated Ligue 1 side

from the Coupe de France following a 3–2 victory. ''Les Maynats'' went on to face national champions Paris Saint-Germain in the round of 16 of the cup, losing 2–0. Pau registered their highest attendance ever that day, with 16,707 persons witnessing the Parisian victory. When the

2019–20 Championnat National The 2019–20 Championnat National season was the 27th season since the establishment of the Championnat National, and the 22nd in its current format, which serves as the third division of the French football league system. The season was suspende ...

season was prematurely ended due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

, Pau were top of the table, and were declared promoted to Ligue 2 by the FFF executive committee. In the 2020–21 season, the club placed fourteenth in Ligue 2.

Key dates

1920: Foundation of ''Bleuets Notre-Dame de Pau''. 1923: First football season of Bleuets Notre-Dame de Pau. 1951: French youth champion 1956: Reached the top level of the French South-West regional football league. 1958: Champion of the French South-West regional football league. Promotion to the third tier of French football. 1959: ''Football Club de Pau'' split from ''Bleuets de Notre-Dame de Pau''. 1995: The club went to administration, reformed, changed their name to ''Pau Football Club'' and were relegated to the fourth tier of French football. 1998: Champion of the Group C of the Championnat de France Amateur and promoted to the Championnat National. The club also reached the round of 16 of the Coupe de France, where they lost 2–0 to Paris Saint-Germain. 2008: Relegation to the Championnat de France Amateur. 2016: Promotion to the Championnat National. 2020: Promotion to Ligue 2.

Colours and badge

For the 2022–23 season, the club decided to update their logo. Their new crest has a round shape and gathers many symbols of Béarn and the city of Pau: the

Pyrenees The Pyrenees (; es, Pirineos ; french: Pyrénées ; ca, Pirineu ; eu, Pirinioak ; oc, Pirenèus ; an, Pirineus) is a mountain range straddling the border of France and Spain. It extends nearly from its union with the Cantabrian Mountains to ...

mountain range, the Pic du Midi d'Ossau and the two cows that feature on the province of Béarn's flag. There are various references to the coat of arms of the city of Pau such as King Henry IV's crown, the three posts that gave the city its name (''pau'' in Béarnese) and the peafowl, a clear example of

canting arms Canting arms are heraldic bearings that represent the bearer's name (or, less often, some attribute or function) in a visual pun or rebus. French heralds used the term (), as they would sound out the name of the armiger. Many armorial all ...

, as its name (''pavon'' or ''pau'' in Béarnese) was used as an approximation to represent the city of Pau.

Current squad

References

{{Authority control Association football clubs established in 1920 Sport in Pau, Pyrénées-Atlantiques 1920 establishments in France Football clubs in Nouvelle-Aquitaine